During a rally Thursday morning outside of Brooklyn’s Central Court building, a longtime firebrand and former Brooklyn assemblyman, Dov Hikind, called for greater consequences for antisemitic attacks in New York.

The rally came as antisemitic crimes in New York spike. A recent analysis of NYPD data from the Algemeiner found that anti-Jewish hate crimes increased by more than 40 percent in 2022.

“You can beat up on Jews. There are no consequences,” Mr. Hikind said, noting a record of light sentences for perpetrators of antisemitic crimes. “The people who attack us — they know this.” 

According to a recent study by Mr. Hikind’s organization, American Against Antisemitism, only one perpetrator of an antisemitic hate crime has been convicted and sentenced to a “significant” prison term since 2018 — despite more than 100 individuals being arrested for such crimes in that period.

Mr. Hikind criticized the overall atmosphere in the criminal justice system of New York. Perpetrators, he said, “have nothing to be concerned with as long as you have a justice system that cares more about the criminal, the perpetrator than the innocent New Yorker, the innocent victim.”

About a dozen supporters stood behind Mr. Hikind at the rally, including two New York City Council members, Inna Vernikov and Ari Kagan, and several activists from Jewish groups around the city.

Both Ms. Vernikov, who previously served as an aide to Ms. Hikind, and Mr. Kagan are American Jews from the former Soviet Union, representing largely conservative Jewish constituencies at Brooklyn. 

“We the Jewish community are going to get a little tougher,” Mr. Hikind said. “It’s not just going to be rhetoric. We will do whatever is necessary to get justice for the victims of hate.”

Mr. Hikind made an appeal for New York’s Jews “to arm themselves,” echoing the call of his onetime mentor, Rabbi Meir Kahane, who famously said for “every Jew a .22” 

“I think that we need to start training more people physically to protect themselves,” Mr. Hikind opined. “We need to be trained. We need to be prepared to act.”

The gathering came on the occasion of the criminal felony trial in Kings County criminal court of Suleiman Othman, who is charged with the hate-motivated assault of Blake Zavadsky. 

Mr. Zavadsky was wearing an Israel Defense Forces sweatshirt in the heavily Arab Bay Ridge neighborhood of Brooklyn when Mr. Othman allegedly punched him for wearing the hoodie in the wrong neighborhood.

Mr. Hikind noted that his group was following the trial with bated breath, and voiced a near threat to the judge, Danny Chung.

“We’re gonna watch this judge, who has a reputation for being more interested in the criminal than the victim,” Mr. Hikind said. “We’re gonna watch if he will dispense justice. And if he doesn’t, we will be visiting his home to let his neighbors know what kind of judge he is.”

Mr. Hikind will pursue justice for victims of antisemitic crime again tomorrow, in a meeting with elected officials of Nassau County about the recent plea deals for two alleged assailants in a gang attack on an Orthodox Jew in Times Square. 

The victim of the Times Square assault, Joseph Borgen, is a native of Long Island.

The Manhattan district attorney, Alvin Bragg, has come under fire over the past week for the deals, first reported in these pages. Two additional suspects in the beating will go to trial.